City of Savannah Employees' Retirement Plan

City of Savannah Employees' Retirement Plan

The City of Savannah Employees' Retirement Plan was adopted in 1972 to provide retirement and disability income security for municipal employees. Governance rests with a board comprising city officials including City Manager Jay Melder, CFO David Maxwell, and City Council Member Detric Leggett, alongside citizen trustee Frederick J. Bailey, who chairs the investment committee. The plan covers employees of the City of Savannah and participating agencies such as the Savannah Airport Authority and the Metropolitan Planning Commission. The plan allocates across a multi-asset portfolio shaped by an internal investment committee. Asset classes include domestic equity, international equity, emerging markets equity, fixed income, short-term fixed income, core real estate, and private equity. Within private markets, the plan invests through fund commitments and real estate fund portfolios, with exposure to mixed-use properties in the United States. The fixed-income sleeve includes U.S. government obligations, domestic corporate bonds, and foreign corporate bonds. Geographic footprint extends across United States and global markets, with dedicated emerging-markets equity exposure. Altss estimates the plan's assets at $500M. The plan's board and staff maintain active professional network ties to the Georgia Association of Public Pension Trustees, the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, and the Public Pension Financial Forum for continuing education and governance peer exchange. The plan operates as a classic municipal defined-benefit trust — its investment decisions are made by a citizen-and-official board rather than delegated to an external OCIO or consultant-led model. This insider governance structure, combined with a broad asset-class mandate that reaches into private funds and real assets, distinguishes it from smaller municipal plans that stay largely in public markets.